By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The tax authority moved to clarify asset valuation rules for the 2025 tax season, allowing most taxpayers to self-declare the market value of their movable and immovable assets without formal appraisals or documentation.
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) issued the guidance to counter rampant misinformation on social media, as it battles compliance issues and technical glitches with just days left before the September 30 filing deadline.
High-net-worth individuals, however, aren’t off the hook. They remain tethered to stricter reporting obligations under Section 7E of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001, the FBR said. The clarification follows confusion over the income tax return form, rolled out on July 7, which mandates asset market value declarations on page 66.
With 2.7 million returns filed so far, the FBR has flagged a troubling trend: a significant number of taxpayers entered zero in the asset valuation field, raising red flags about compliance and data integrity. To curb this, the agency has blocked zero entries in its online IRIS filing system.
“All taxpayers must now declare their asset values,” FBR Chairman Rashid Mahmood Langrial said in a statement. He described the change as a technical fix to prevent abuse, not a shift in law. For most filers, asset valuations don’t factor into tax liability calculations, meaning errors in this section won’t trigger notices, the FBR noted.
Still, the agency pressed taxpayers to report values that reflect current market conditions, framing it as a matter of transparency. Those who’ve already filed won’t need to amend their returns, as asset valuations don’t feed into tax assessments or wealth statement reconciliations.
The FBR also debunked social media claims of amendments to the return form, confirming no Statutory Regulatory Order has been issued. It insisted the IRIS system is fully functional, urging filers to meet the looming deadline.
Tax bar associations, however, are sounding alarms over technical hiccups. The Pakistan Tax Bar Association and Karachi Tax Bar Association have appealed to Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb for an investigation into the issues and a deadline extension to ease the burden on taxpayers.
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